From a Match to a Wildfire: The Witnesses Tales
by SpitfireShippersAnonymous
Summary: A series of ficlets about the many times Wally comes running to Barry and Iris about Artemis over the years. Whether it be complaining, advice, or wondering if vibrating in bed is a safe thing to do! Suggested by IronicVeghead.
1. Infiltrator

**Disclaimer: We do not own Young Justice or any of it's characters.**

**Hope you guys enjoy the beginning of this trip through the eyes of Barry and Iris, as Wally relates many important events in his life to them, perhaps letting his affections for Artemis slip through just a little too much. ;) This first one's a bit short, but the lengths will very with each one.**

**This starts out at Infiltrator and goes through the biggest moments in the series.**

**o.o.o.o**

**_Infiltrator_  
**

**_Written by IronicVeghead, TheRantDragon, and Alfhild_  
**

**_o.o.o.o_**

The first time Barry had heard of Artemis Crock was when he got a call from Oliver Queen, informing him of the soon-to-be addition to his nephew's team. Barry was a bit nervous how the sudden change of prodigy would go over with Wally, but the archer had explained her situation and the speedster had wholeheartedly agreed that the girl deserved a chance to change her life.

The blond had to admit, though, that he was pleased to hear there was going to be another girl on the team. And he had been told that she was going to be joining the team on their mission tonight, which should have been over already. So the hero was sitting at home, working on taxes(fun, exciting taxes), waiting on the inevitable arrival of his partner.

"Uncle Barry! Why didn't you warn me!" Wally's voice rang out as the redhead burst into the room. He was still clad in uniform, but yanked his goggles and mask down as he entered the house, flinging the eyewear haphazardly onto the sofa as he walked passed.

"Hey champ, how'd the mission go?" The blond turned with a grin, feigning innocence. Wally plopped down into the seat beside his uncle, a frown etched onto his face. His hair was sticking in every which direction from his run, helped further along in disarray when he brought his hands up to comb through the locks in aggravation.

"How could you let him do that?"

"What are we talking about?" Barry inquired skeptically, turning in his seat to face his nephew. Any distraction was a good one when it came to _taxes_.

"Don't lie to me," Wally's frown was bordering on a pout at this point. "How could you let GA replace Roy like that? And especially with _her_!"

Barry resisted the urge to sigh. He _knew _Wally was going to be distraught by this; he _always _overreacted to big changes in his life. "Roy left Oliver without a teammate, and Artemis was ready to take the next step into heroeing. It was the logical move," he explained, hoping his nephew could see some sense.

"Well you didn't have to send her to _us_!" the teen whined, crossing his arms. Barry held in a laugh at how childish Wally was acting.

"Give her a chance, Kid," he gave the redhead a light smile. "Who knows, you might actually like her."

"Yeah," Wally agreed sarcastically, rolling his eyes. He stood up to head to the kitchen, no doubt to eat away his building agitation. "And maybe Batman will crack a smile."

Barry turned back to his computer with a knowing smirk; after all, Batman was known to let out a grin once or twice in a decade...

**o.o.o.o**

His Aunt Iris was in the kitchen, and she made them both some tea as she silently listened to her nephew's recount of his mission; apparently, Wally needed a new set of ears to hear his complaints. When he had finished, she asked, "And so you shook hands and agreed to play nice?"

Wally's expression turned peevish.

Iris gave him a knowing smile before she asked him another question.

"Do you remember your first month of fifth grade?"

Of course Wally remembered it. It had been the worst month of his life (he may or may not have spent several afternoons crying on his aunt's couch because of it). He'd gotten sick with mono towards the end of the summer and had had to miss the first few weeks of school. The day he went back, the teacher had announced a big science project, and assigned him to work with a group of kids. But those kids happened to have a friend who had been absent that day, and they'd wanted that friend in their group—not Wally. They'd gone out of their way to make him feel unwelcome, and in response, he'd been just as mean back, the project was never finished, and—

_Oh_. It hit him.

Wally's mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to come up with a rebuttal, but he really had nothing to say. Aunt Iris had trumped him again.

She raised an eyebrow quizzically at her nephew, who currently resembled a goldfish more than a superhero.

He finally settled for a glare, which she met with an impassive smile.

"I hate it when you're right."


	2. Denial

**Disclaimer: We do not own Young Justice or any of it's characters.**

**o.o.o.o**

**_Written by IronicVeghead and TheRantDragon_  
**

**o.o.o.o**

Iris had been pestering him for a while about talking to Wally over what happened at the Tower of Fate. The redhead had been acting normal since the event, but he would slip up every once in a while. One of them would catch him in a daze, solemnly staring at nothing in particular, a contemplative look on his face, or Iris might find a book on spells hidden in his room, smuggled from the cave.

It wasn't until after the funeral that Wally seemed willing to talk about what might have shook him, and the blond hero was thankful that the kid had finally decided to open up, otherwise Iris might have locked them in a room together. (Which actually wouldn't be very effective, but once she got something in mind, Barry was well aware Iris would find a way to get something done).

"Hey Kid," Barry smiled, sliding into the kitchen table chair next to his fellow speedster. He'd come prepared with a box of popsicles as a peace offering. Barry opened one of the treats while Wally did the same, trying to not seem too anxious to get a conversation going.

But stealth wasn't really The Flash's thing.

"How are you feeling?" He blurted out, withholding a flinch from the obvious bluntness.

"Uncle Barry, I know you're worried that I've been screwed up because Nelson died on me," Wally spoke as he bit off the end of his popsicle, raising his eyebrows to give his uncle a _look_."But I _get _why that happened, that's not what's bothering me."

He sighed, tossing his popsicle stick on the plate Barry had retrieved as a trash collector.

"Do you want to talk about what is?" the hero asked, staring at the colorful pictures of the cool treats on the box, if only to give his eyes something to do that wasn't drilling holes into Wally's head.

Wally was relatively silent as he dug out another popsicle, taking his time to pull the wrapper off and scrunching his nose up in disgust that he'd grabbed a grape flavored one by accident. Still, he bit into it and spoke around a mouthful of ice.

"Magic."

Barry stopped in the middle of chewing, casting a strange glance his nephew's way. The older speedster knew of the things that had taken place on the Tower, and he knew of Klarion the Witchboy's magic, as well as Dr. Fate's. He also knew that Wally had an intense intolerance of things like faith and magic. Silly kid's tales to a man of science such as Wally.

"What about magic? Do you... believe in it?"

"No! I mean... not _really_, but... ugh, I don't even know anymore," he admitted, laying his uneaten grape pop on the plate to melt. He fished for a more desirable flavor. "I mean, science has always been my go to explanation for things, a-and it does explain things, a _lot _of things. But..."

"Wally," Barry said gently, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's okay to admit that there are some things out there you just can't explain."

"But it's not okay!" the redhead retorted hotly. "_Everything _has an explanation, uncle Barry! All my life I've been able to explain things with simple math and science, and now suddenly I'm just supposed to believe that that's all a lie?"

"Kid, no one said anything about anything being a lie. You just have to learn to think of it a bit differently," he spoke kindly, leaning back into his chair comfortably. "Can science explain what the Martians can do?"

Wally opened his mouth to reply, gaping like a fish, before he shook his head begrudgingly, his eyebrows furrowing together in thought as he reached for his abandoned popsicle in an excuse not to speak.

"Exactly," Barry pointed out. "The Martian's have telepathy because things are different on Mars than they are here. The way their minds work allows them to do things we can't. Take the Altanteans for example!" The blond squeezed his nephew's shoulder excitedly, "We can't breathe underwater, but they can! Because they have the bodies to do so. They work that way."

Barry swore he faintly heard Wally mutter something about evolution under his breath, but there was no way to be sure.

"So..." Wally swung his popsicle stick around as he spoke. "You're saying that magic is a product of another species abilities?"

"Absolutely," The Flash nodded, holding out another frozen treat to the redhead. Wally took it gratefully. "There are other planes of existence out there that are ruled entirely by magic, and sometimes things and people from them make their way to us."

"Like Doctor Fate?" Wally spoke tentatively, as though apprehensive of the subject.

"Very much like Doctor Fate, yes," Barry agreed sagely, glad to see that he seemed to be getting through to the kid. "So you see Wally, you can still rely on science, it explains a lot in our universe. But you also need to recognize that there are things out there, _beyond _us, that your science isn't applicable to. Just like our earth has science, magic has its own rules to follow as well."

The speedster nodded passively, and Barry knew that the teen didn't yet want to agree out loud. He understood that it would take a while before Wally would be able to fully accept this new way of thinking, but he was making progress at the very least.

Silence fell between them as they polished the box of popsicles off. Wally appeared to be very, very deep in thought for a long time, chewing on the wooden stick left from his last snack.

"Uncle Barry, what's a spitfire?" he blurted out all of a sudden, automatically wiping some blue spit that landed on the kitchen table off with his sleeve.

"A spitfire?" The blond frowned. "Isn't that a plane?"

"But is it a person, too?" The redhead was quick to amend, his words a bit jumbled in his race to get them out without letting them linger in his throat.

"Uh," Barry closed his eyes for a moment as he thought through his memories for an answer; the term was familiar and the definition was on the tip of his tongue... "Oh! A spitfire! Right, right. It's like... a woman who's really loud and outspoken, right? Someone you don't want to get on the bad side of. One of those 'can't be tamed' dames that keeps you on your toes and gets in your face all the time."

Wally looked horrified by his answer and Barry immediately felt sheepish for letting the word 'dames' slip out. "Sorry, Wally. My lingo is a bit outdated, huh?" he chuckled.

"Loud?" The boy croaked, totally oblivious to his uncle. "Gets in your face!"

Wally's hands were flat on the table at this point, his eyes darting around the room wildly as if expecting the type of woman his uncle had just described to come crawling out of the woodwork and attack him.

"Wally," Barry spoke hesitantly. The young speedster looked to be either on the precipice of a great revelation, or a mental breakdown... or both. "You there, bud?"

"He must have been serious..." Wally whispered to himself. "And _her_... He was talking about _her_?"

Barry wasn't even sure the kid had realized he had stood up from his chair during his mumblings. The older speedster let his hands hover worriedly around his nephew's shoulders, unsure of what to do to snap him out of it.

"Sure, she's _pretty _but could-_AH!" _Wally's hands flew up to cover his mouth, his wide green eyes darting over to stare at his uncle. "I'!"

And just like that, Wally was gone, popsicle wrappers flying around the room uselessly from the gust of wind left in his wake.

Barry scratched curiously at his head before shaking it and picking up the empty box. He was in the process of crushing it and tossing it in the trash when he heard Iris enter through the front door(Wally had left it wide open in his haste the vacate the premises).

"In here, babe," he called to her. She came to the entrance of the kitchen, looking terribly confused and worried.

"I think I saw Wally pass me on the way in... is he alright, Barry?"

Barry smirked.

"Oh, Wally's fine, dear. I think he might have _quite _the crush, though..." he snickered knowingly, steering his wife back into the living room to let her in on all the fun.


End file.
